Whistler was not in it’s best of states. The runs were sheer ice on the north side of the mountain. There were rocks everywhere and adding to the congestion was this weeks attraction, being Gay Week, which made an anthill of moving human mass on every run serviced by the lifts. But hey,” it was %50 off at mountaintop restaurants” , some restrictions applying , of course, or so proclaimed the snow report.

Luckily, while taking a peek at Whistler’s south side towards Chekamus lake, there was a great run we could do, then simply hike back up to the ski out. As we descended into “ the Cake Hole “ our instincts were right. It was thigh deep, heli-ski like terrain here. Also, somebody made a great traverse, which was complimented with a short 15-minute boot pack back to Highway 86. This area is infamous for swallowing up lost skiers and snowboarders who follow tracks and get lost down in the valley bottom, and do not know the trail out. Whistler ski patrol had even put up signs here. They pointed towards a picture of the clock tower in the town center, with a nicely sketched sign on a wooden post, so it would work in every possible language. We did four laps in thigh deep fluff while Whistlers destination visitors endured the 45 minute lineups on most lifts, scraping off to blue ice the last remnants of man made snow , down runs like Olympic . Soon our hidden powder fields were well farmed and there was still no new snow in the forecast. It was definitely time to plan an escape into something better, whiter and softer.

I called Jeff Plant, the GM at Apex Resort. Jeff had invited us out to film before but we had not had the opportunity to take him up on his offer. I had an assignment again from POLTV which airs on Vancouvers Multicultural Channel.. And so, by Thursday of next week, Pawel Boryniec and I were packed into his Subaru along with his two kids, Natalka and Carolina and headed for Okanagan Country.

Jeff had styled us out with a lovely room at the Mountainside Lodge for three nights. Friday was blue bird so we got filming right away. Although at first look, Apex seems like a small hill, but do not let that get at your impressions of the place. The vertical may only be a couple of grand, but it’s steep terrain, but with it’s fast four minute quad, Apex can give you so many laps that you are dead tired by the end of the day, or I was anyway.
Pawels kids also had a wonderful time since a smaller resort is so much less intimidating

There were no lineups whatsoever on Friday while Saturday and Sunday we may have waited five minutes tops. To add to the jovial atmosphere there was a hockey tournament in town that weekend. With it came huge nightlife , complete with women taking off their bras and throwing them at the antlers of a Moose Head hanging in the Gun barrel Saloon.


GOLENRUSH IS A DOCUMENTARY FILM SPANNING FOUR YEARS IN WHICH THE TOWN OF GOLDEN, BRITISH COLUMBIA IS MAKING A DIFFICULT TRANSITION FROM A RESOURCE BASED ECONOMY, BEING A MILL TOWN TOWARDS BECOMING A HOPEFULL YEAR ROUND DESTINATION MOUNTAIN AND SKI RESORT. THE FILM EXAMINES THE CHANGES TAKING PLACE THROUGH THE EYES AND VOICE OF THREE GROUPS OF CHARACTERS, BEING THE LOCAL LOGGERS, SUCH AS LOCAL BILLY MERCER, THE DUTCH DEVELOPERS / FORMER WHISTLER REAL ESTATE BARONS, HEADED BY VISIONARY ITALIAN/ ARCHITECT, OBERTO OBERTI, AS WELL AS VARIOUS ACADEMICS INCLUDING WADE DAVIS PHD, BOB SANDFORD AND AUTHOR HAL CLIFFORD (DOWNHILL SLIDE) THE SUDDEN INFLUX OF 1000 NEW SKI BUMS IN TOWN, CHARACTERISED BY SKI BUM CELEBRITY, TROY JUNGEN, A FIRST NATIONS MEMBER AND ALREADY LEGENDARY SKI MOUNTAINEER KNOWN BEST FOR HIS FIRST EVER SKI DESCENT OF THE PERILOUS NORTH FACE OF MT ROBSON, THE HIGHEST PEAK IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES.


On behalf of Extreme Explorations, I wanted to invite your business to participate in our 2005 multi media blitz of Western Canadian Ski Centers.


MISSION STATEMENT:

A group of skiers comprised of Polish and Canadian Media, complimented by local talent will film a Reality One hour documentary show of their visit to Canada. Since for many of them, this is their first visit to our magnificent Western Canadian skiing, it will be a very interesting experience for them. Our crew will document their experience with Canadian Skiing and Culture. The entire experience will create a very interesting piece of television combining “old country social values“, with magnificent ski and scenic footage. The piece will be very strongly character driven. The primary focus of our group is to introduce the notion of “free riding “

1. To produce an hour of Reality Show Television for POL TV, a weekly hour program on Channel M (Multicultural Channel) then marketed to television networks in Poland and, Europe and our Television contacts worldwide.
2. Gather stock footage and stills for “ VANISHING GLACIERS “ as well as “ AIR HEADS “ two feature documentary film projects in development by Extreme
3. To write, photograph “The making of “, the above mentioned films for a variety of regional, national and international media on the trip including NTN , Poland’s biggest Ski Magazine publication.
4. To promote the DVD release of our newest feature film “GOLDENRUSH “, offering entertainment with “ Movie Night “ film screenings to Ski Resorts, Operators and their clients in the evenings of your choice.

OUR NEEDS

We ask that you provide accommodation, lift tickets (snow cat or heli rides) to our crew, (or partial crew), for two to three days at your resort. We also invite automobile dealers, car /RV rentals as well as any sponsors that may wish to take advantage of the promotion.

SPONSOR BENEFITS:

In exchange for hosting us, we can provide the following to your Establishment:
- Access to all our professionally shot footage for your own in house use, for demo reels, this alone is of huge value as we all know the high cost of production for infomercials & TV ads. We all know the high cost of production, therefore in exchange for your “In Kind Sponsorship “ this offer alone is a very attractive proposition.
- Placement and credits on finished production.
- Mention of involved hosts and sponsors in all print and Internet media

INTENDED AUDIENCE

The following markets and distribution channels have been identified. Many of you may recognize our company from various visits to your fine resort over the past twenty years. For example in 1994, we did the “ WSTERN SKI TOUR “ filming an eight half hour, powder skiing, snowboarding and telemark series called “ Whiteout “. Whiteout ended up airing on Knowledge Network, then Outdoor Life, then was sold to German Cable TV exposing the resorts involved.



SCHEDULE

March 3rd Arrival in Vancouver
March 3-6 Whistler
March 6- 8 Silverstar/Big White/Sun Peaks
March 9, 10 Red Mountain
March 11, 12 Whitewater/Fernie
March 13-20 Golden, Kickinghorse, Revelstoke, Heli, Cat Skiing, Lake Louise
March 21st Depart Vancouver

Note: Please take in consideration that this is a tentative schedule only. Due to the poor snow year and high Vacancies, we hope to have a little grace as far as exact dates, should you be able to accommodate our plans. We hope to be able to follow the best snow conditions possible and keep plans fairly flexible whenever possible.

1. HOME VIDEO / DVD

The project has strong home video audience appeal. Because the reality/documentary format appeals to a variety of audiences, it is ideal for the home video market that will ensure extensive distribution through the following channels:

BLACK DIAMOND FILMS LIMITED http://www.blackdiamond.co.uk/ is Europe's biggest distributor of Extreme Sports Video. The outfit already carries several Extreme Explorations titles.

VIDEO ACTION SPORTS, http://www.videoactionsports.com/. The largest distributor of action sports in North America

INTERNET. Our own websites: www.explorex.net (under extreme videos), www.itv.net/extreme , and www.itv.net promote and distribute through e-commerce EE videos. www.goski.com, one of the world's largest Ski/snowboard sites, distributes exclusively Extreme Explorations videos. Also sites like www.biglines.com promote our work constantly with press releases.

2. OTHER FILM END USERS

There is also some opportunity to market SKIWEST 2005 through other individual end
Users, such as the local Tourist Offices, all ski resorts and chambers of Commerce of Resorts visited en route. These organizations, as well as participating donors from the ski and outdoor industries, have strong incentives to promote and market ready-made videos on their region highlighting their products or services that are featured in the film, these automatically become clients that will distribute the video. Such promotion is achieved by means of value-added internal campaigns during which the video is offered through sponsors’ giveaways, subscription drives and included with advertisement campaigns. Opening credits at the beginning of the film can be customized to display the end-user’s customized identity." We invite you to capitalize on distributing SKIWEST 2005 through its network of shops as well as real estate resort holdings.

Educational institutions and libraries will be contacted directly, or through video distributors. This target group is conducive to the video for its educational value in fields of history, geography, environment, social studies, ethnography and physical education. The video can be shown in two reality/doc 26-minute segments with discussions in between. Discussion topics can include the geographical areas shown in the film. Native land claims, indigenous areas in Mexico and at other ski areas are also discussed in the film.

3. TELEVISION

Besides POLTV and Polish Television POLSAT and TV POLONIA, International prime time television represents another key distribution channel. The film has viewer appeal for age groups between 9 and 90. Its educational, informative and entertaining content provides a glimpse of Canadian sportsmanship abroad, history, and environmental concerns. The film has also international appeal as it features a road trip through three distinctive countries and cultures. It is the social value of the strong character driven piece which makes it so attractive.

Over the past 25 years of Extreme Explorations broadcast history, the producers have established a sound relationship and achieved a good track record with many television networks and broadcasters. Television program distributors who have dealt with Extreme Explorations in the past include Filmoption and Great North (Alliance Atlantis). For SKIWEST 2005, pre-sale and acquisition negotiations with various organizations are progressing, while new contacts are being developed. To date, one pre-license contract has been signed for a recent film with Access Television CLT (3.5 million Canadian viewers) on a project being marketed now, being GOLDENRUSH as well as re-packaging all of Extreme Exploration films in a series format. The producers have worked with the following television networks among a few:

CBC, CTV, National Geographic, Outdoor Life, Knowledge Network Global, Vision, APTN, Outside Television, Channel 4 (UK), Canal +, France 3, Access Alberta, Discovery, Dutch Television, and the new Digital Lifestyle/Documentary channels. RSN (Resort Sports Network), Whistler Cable ( In house Whistler Channel in all hotels and Whistler homes.

POLTV DEMOGRAPHICS

Below are a few numbers of POLTV’s demographics and potential outreach in Canada, as well as abroad.

The Polish Population in Canada is 1,248,000 Polish-speaking people. POLTV is accessible by STAR CHOICE over Satellite internationally. E-mails from viewers are already coming in from Polish communities in Chicago, Arizona and beyond who have viewed our shows. In the lower mainland alone there are 50,000 Polish-speaking people. Ontario has 500,050, Alberta 75,000, etc. etc.





Author: Peter Chrzanowski
Upload date: February 25, 2005 2:11 PM
Copyright: Pawel B.